Internet dating: If you're not getting robbed in real life by your date, then you're probably getting conned by them in some other way. A two-time cancer survivor says that she was cheated out of $86K by a man she met on Match.com. "I cashed money out of an IRA; out of, you know, retirement money," the woman, who didn't want her name used, told CBS. "You want to believe, because you think you’re developing a relationship."
The 59-year-old woman, who lives in Montclair, NJ, had a six-month online relationship with a man who called himself Maxwell Yas in 2012. Yas, who used a fake photo, claimed he was 60 years old, from New York, and working as a civil engineer in Malaysia. He told her he was in financial trouble and needed money, and she agreed to wire it to him: "I’ve always been a very rational person, and everything told me: 'No, you have to question this. It doesn’t sound right,'" the woman said.
The FBI have launched an investigation, but say it is highly unlikely they'll recover the money. The woman wants to tell her story, though, to warn others of similar scams: "No matter what they say; no matter what kind of tale they tell you, you really have to be brave and say no."
Although Match has done a decent job of weeding out sex offenders, this is far from the first grifter to take advantage of lonely people on the site: a 53-year-old Long Island divorcee lost $25K to one in 2010, and at least two men have been arrested and charged with perpetrating cons on the site.
And these troubles have extended to other online dating sites including OKCupid, which was recently sued by a Queens man after he was swindled out of $70K by a man he met on the dating website.
